Drilling operations involve numerous specialized workers located at a drill-site. Typically, at least one worker (the “instructing driller”) is tasked with directing the drilling of the well by monitoring the path of the well and instructing one or more workers (“instructed drillers”) to make adjustments to the drilling equipment such that the path of the well closely follows a predetermined well plan.
The instructing driller is located at the drill-site and communicates instructions to the instructed drillers by either using an on-site phone, being physically located on the drilling floor to speak to the instructed drillers, or using an electronic note on an Electronic Drilling Recorder (EDR).
The instructing driller is responsible for recording all instructions issued by the instructing driller into a document known as a slide sheet. The slide sheet is a record of the actions taken at a drill-site during the drilling of a well. The instructing driller manually enters information into the slide sheet either as a paper record or as a digital record.
In directional drilling applications, the well plan identifies a series of target points through which the path of well is desired to follow. The instructing driller directs the path of the well by communicating instructions to the instructed drillers to control the advancement of a drill string into the ground. The drill string comprises a bottom hole assembly (“BHA”) positioned at the bottom most point of the drill string, and a series of drill pipes (also known as “singles”) that are incrementally attached to the upper tail end of the drill string as the drill string advances into the ground. The BHA typically comprises a drill bit, a mud motor, a bent sub, a measurement while drilling (“MWD”) tool, and other components that are well known in the art.
The instructing driller monitors the path of well by interpolating the results of periodic surveys taken during the drilling operation. Each survey identifies the current depth, inclination and azimuth of the BHA. The instructing driller controls the path of the well by issuing drilling instructions to the instructed drillers that typically comprise a combination of one or more slide and rotate commands. A slide command directs the instructed drillers to advance the drill string a specific distance and at a specific toolface angle without rotation of the drill string. A rotate command directs the instructed drillers to advance the drill string a specific distance while rotating the drill string.